Reaching the Design Capacity of a Continuous Section Caster

A new growth strategy has been devised for the West Siberian Metallurgical Combine. The cornerstone of the plan is the reconstruction of the combine's steelmaking facilities, which will involve a complete changeover to continuous casting. Oxygen-converter shop No. 2 is the first shop to be rebuilt. In October 2002, the shop added a continuous section caster with a nominal capacity of 1.2–1.4 million tons of continuous-cast semifinished products a year. The caster reached this level of output in September 2003 (11 months after startup). The design parameters of the caster were attained thanks to a combination of technological, technical, and organizational factors: development and optimization of new technologies for steelmaking, out-of-furnace treatment of the steel, and continuous casting; optimization of the steelmaking-casting schedule; modernization of the caster's equipment. The addition of a “ladle-furnace” unit and reconstruction of the main components of the caster will boost its capacity beyond the original limit, which will in turn allow the combine to make competitive, high-quality products and react quickly to changes in the market.     

Melting pig iron with the use of nonfluxed pellets of the Kachkanarsk Concentrating Plant

Translated from Metallurg, Vol. 39, No. 10, pp. 18–19, October, 1995.